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Clients

I have the coolest job in the world. My clients are why.

I have worked with some of the most interesting, inventive, curious, visionary, focused, collaborative, reflective, and ready-to-learn people out there. My clients are ready to take risks, do things differently, challenge themselves, and grow throughout the process.

I prioritize clients and projects with clear inclusion, access, equity, and anti-oppression missions and values.

Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History (Detroit, MI)

How can a museum jump-start audience insights? In this 3 year IMLS project, Kate serves as the Museum’s dedicated evaluation coach, demonstrating key evaluation tenants and methods, then transitioning evaluation to the Museum’s internal team– leading to sustainable in-house evaluation.

Detroit Institute of Arts (MI)

What changes when artworks are publicly accessible outdoors, rather than within the museum’s walls? In this 3-year IMLS-funded project, Kate is evaluating the DIA’s statewide Inside|Out program, which brings high-quality reproductions of masterpieces from the museum’s collection to outdoor venues throughout Michigan.

History Colorado (Denver, CO)

What can Native American traditional ecological knowledge and western science learn from one another? In this 5-year NSF-funded project, Kate is joining members of three Ute tribes, archeologists, botanists, and museum workers to evaluate cross-cultural intersections and possibilities within STEM.

Humanities Action Lab

Can exposure to urgent social issues spark action? Kate is working with this international coalition of universities, issue organizations, and public spaces that collaborate on public humanities projects, programs, and exhibits to evaluate individual and collective outcomes related to mass incarceration and environmental and climate justice.

Brookfield Zoo (Chicago, IL)

How can we create a place-based STEM ecosystem? As part of a 5-year NSF research grant, Kate is leading evaluation to uncover what works and matters when an under-resourced, Chicago neighborhood is provided with lifelong environmental science learning programming. Also unique to this project is the community-based local data collection team.

Historic Hudson Valley (Tarrytown, NY)

How can we translate the onsite experience online? Working with a panel of historians, digital media, and experience design advisors, Kate is part of a dynamic team working to bring the often-marginalized history of slavery in the colonial North to online audiences. Blending usability testing with visitor studies, Kate is keeping the audience front-of-mind during website development.

9/11 Memorial & Museum (New York, NY)

How can visitor insights inform and improve current and future museum exhibits? Through a combination of workshops and trainings on evaluation theory, methodology, and instrument design, followed by evaluation planning and coaching, Kate is infusing the Museum’s exhibits team with new evaluation skill sets.

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (CA)

Do digital interactives change the experience of an art museum visit? With SFMOMA’s 2016 re-opening, three new interpretive galleries incorporating digital tools were launched. Kate teamed with SFMOMA to assess to what extent these digital experiences were utilized– and how they helped visitors connect and make meaning during their visits.

The Field Museum (Chicago, IL)

What can we learn from our current website before we create a new one? Kate reviewed web analytics, created pop-up surveys, interviewed Museum staff, and facilitated usability testing to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the Field Museum’s current website, arming the web team with what they needed to inform future decision-making.

Meow Wolf (Santa Fe, NM)

As rapid growth and expansion occurs, how can we ensure the flagship experience continues to thrive? Kate conduced a needs assessment– including staff interviews and guest observations– to identify strengths and areas of opportunity for the operations team at Meow Wolf’s House of Eternal Return in Santa Fe.

Cleveland Museum of Natural History (OH)

How can we improve our new field trip program for 2nd graders? In a comprehensive evaluation combining follow-up with teachers, post-visit student writing and drawing activities, and perspectives of Museum staff implementing the program, Kate is helping CMNH understand the current state of a new, city-wide program and how it can be strengthened.

Minnesota State Arts Board

How can we get artists and creatives excited about evaluation? Teaming with a graphic facilitator, Kate is co-facilitating a series of workshops around the state to generate enthusiasm and revive energy around grant-required evaluation. Moving participants from fear and loathing to understanding– and even advocating for– evaluation’s potential and intrinsic value is the goal.

Dallas Museum of Art (TX)

Can we design effective systems for compiling and analyzing visitor participation data? For the summative evaluation of an IMLS grant led by the DMA, Kate worked alongside five art museums nationwide to evaluate interactive, digital platforms and expand upon the successful ‘DMA Friends’ model.

Institute of Museum and Library Services (Washington, DC)

How do innovative museums take the lead to maximize and leverage the benefits of federal investment? Kate co-facilitated a convening (alongside a fantastic graphic facilitator) to capture the magic across 30+ IMLS-funded museum projects.

ECHO Lake Aquarium and Science Center (Burlington, VT)

How can our building and outdoor spaces become more community-minded? Teaming with staff and architects, Kate led a series of video walk-throughs with community-based nonprofit leaders and community members to uncover what is (and is not) welcoming and accessible at ECHO to inform and steer a new master plan.

Minneapolis Institute of Art (MN)

We have a bold new strategic plan; now how do we measure it? Kate conducted a series of interviews and focus groups with staff at all levels to come up with a holistic theory of change and establish concrete, measurable outcomes for evaluation.

Enoch Pratt Free Library (Baltimore, MD)

Can user voices be reflected in a library website? Kate facilitated a workshop on user-centered design and trained the team on user experience testing and survey writing to help library staff stay client-focused during their website redesign.

Columbia Museum of Art (SC)

What does our community think? As part of a team of museum planners, architects, and economists hired to produce a new business plan for the Museum, Kate went deep into the community and employed innovative audience research methods to better understand museum perceptions– onsite and off. Three years later, she facilitated the Museum’s new strategic planning process.

Buffalo Bill Museum and Grave (Golden, CO)

Does location really make a difference? Kate teamed with museum planners, strategists, architects, and economists to conduct a feasibility study aimed at better understanding the audiences that visit this iconic location but may not visit the associated museum.

Great Lakes Science Center (Cleveland, OH)

How do we define “making” at our science center and what outcomes can it promote? As GLSC embraces many new spaces and opportunities for making, Kate has worked with the team to define “making” in their specific context, identify key measurable outcomes and indicators, and construct an evaluation plan for public and school maker programs and events.

Denver Art Museum (CO)

Can we create art experiences that engage all ages? For the summative evaluation of an IMLS grant, Kate used a documentary-style video methodology to capture experiences of multi-generational groups with young children (3-12yo) as they interacted with a suite of new activities designed for the museum’s youngest learners.

Museum of Life and Science (Durham, NC)

Does facilitation matter? Kate trained staff on observation, interview, and survey methods to evaluate the role of facilitator engagement and materials management in new exhibition on aerospace, physics, and engineering at this science center.

Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History (Washington, DC)

How can we stay connected with the public while big changes are underway? Kate facilitated a charrette at one of our nation’s most treasured museums, bringing together bold and creative thinkers across sectors to generate smart, new ways to communicate and build excitement.

Testimonials

Having known Kate professionally for quite some time, I’ve been extremely pleased to work with her as a consultant. Pursuing an honest evaluation of one’s project can be a scary proposition, but Kate’s professional expertise and easy-going manner takes the intimidation-factor out of the process entirely. She seamlessly becomes part of the team and contributes her insights in a positive way towards accomplishing the goals of the project.

Kate’s approach to evaluation is fresh, inspiring and practical. She swooped in and, in a matter of hours, energized our whole staff to think differently about our audiences. She inspired us to enlist visitors in answering our thorniest questions and equipped us with customized, do-able approaches for getting started on that project. There was nothing tedious, cookie-cutter, or extraneous about it; people were literally clamoring to get involved. Now, we’re all plotting ways to get Kate involved in our next project.

Kate developed custom observation and interview protocols to specifically address our project goals and research questions. It was great to have all the evaluation instruments and reports tailored specifically to meet our needs. Additionally, the 4-hour training session Kate held with our staff was an invaluable institutional capacity-building and professional development experience for all involved. Expert advice and timely, thorough follow-through on Kate’s part, not to mention her availability, flexibility and reflective practice along the way, made this evaluation study turn out to be such the valuable learning experience for our institution that it did.

Kate has been an invaluable part of multiple projects at History Colorado, from evaluating our school field trips to the creation of digital badges. She begins every project by helping us understand what it is we want to know, and then maps out the best way to get that information. Her main goal is first and foremost to make our project better and to get us the information we need in a format we can understand and really use. She invests the time in getting to know our staff and our project and never floods us with unnecessary reports or information.

Kate is a joy to work with. She is creative, organized, and so darned positive! Any project with Kate will end up with a beautiful and useful finished product, and a lot of good memories about the process.

@huedotart Happy belated #61CHALLENGE bday to your mom! A) @IjeomaOluo's So You Want To Talk About Race, Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart, and @TaNehisiCoats' Between the World and Me--to name a few. B) Looking forward to checking out Random Acts of Flyness.